Thought I'd start a thread to document my attempts at coming up with an "American Mild" ale. I want to end up with a sub 4% beer that doesn't have flavor and mouthfeel comparable to water! I'm basing it on the English Mild, obviously, but with American ingredients. My goal is to come up with a beer with the body and flavor impact of a traditional mild, although not the same flavor. I'm guessing this will take at least 3-6 attempts to get to what I have in mind.

A news story that I just read............
A Virile Beer?
According to a news item in Tokyo's Mainichi Daily News, a French brewery has started tests on a beer, said to contain natural aphrodisiacs, that does not affect the drinker's ability for making love. The Fischer brewery announced that the beer is currently being tested under strict medical control by 400 drinkers in France. The company insists that the announcement, made on April 3, was not an April Fools hoax.

A couple months ago, my friend Mitch Scheele, who writes for the Northwest Brewing News, contacted me about an experiment he wanted to do. He had invented a piece of equipment he calls the “Hop Screw”. It’s a stainless tell cylinder with holes in it, a bar across the top to attach it to your boil kettle, and a plate and screw handle on top. A bit like a stainless cider press. The idea is that you attach it to your kettle before you start collecting wort.

A friend who writes for the Northwest Brewing News contacted me recently about an experiment he wanted to do. It just so happens that it was an experiment we had written up for the book, so I was all for it. Since we haven't had the tasting yet, I won't give away what experiment it was, but in a couple weeks you can read the procedures and results here!

For a long time I've been a proponent of a very simple method of adding coffee to your beer. My process is a long cold steep - 1 cup coarse ground coffee, 2-3 cups of filtered cold water. Mix in a French press, soak for 8 to 12 hours, press, filter and add to the beer in the keg/secondary.

I do this process a few times a week because it's a way of making coffee that my un-caffeinated brain can handle. Press, pour over ice with a little water dilute, drink, repeat until brain screams for mercy. One pot of coffee concentrate can last for several days in the fridge.

Derek Dellinger, over at Bear-Flavored.com did some research by polling for information from the brewers of nationally ranked IPAs.

I'll let you discover the answer over at his site in this article.

Back? What do you think? If you had to choose a limited number of varieties to fit that "ideal" number - what would you choose?

An experiment that we must ponder: What is it with brewer's and facial hair? Is there an aura? A special contribution from the hair? Solar powered thinking machines?

But it can't just be solely the beard. The number of fantastic brewers of the distaff persuasion proves that. Maybe the beer is a vital substitution for something. Maybe it's a extra sensory organ amplifying a less responsive faculty. Who knows, but Denny and I are here for you, dear reader.

It's pumpkin time and as sure as my name is Drew Beechum, the internet is awash in question about pumpkin beers. So to aid in answering some pumpkiny questions, I present to you a column all about the long hard slog to convert my sister to the ways of craft beer. This column first appeared in BeerAdvocate the Magazine in the fall of 2011. Since that time, my sister has gone on to brewing a ton of different beers and haunts the Tampa Bay craft beer scene better than I could. If you happen to see her say hi from her little brother.

Inspired by Janis Gross and her Facebook post today, I feel that its important to say a few words about repetition. So digging back through my archives, I want to present to you the unedited version of my BYOB column in BeerAdvocate Magazine. (You should subscribe - it's a damn good magazine even if I'm writing for it!) This is from around July of 2010 - "Practice Makes Perfect"